Susan Bottomly (born 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts; stage name International Velvet) was seventeen when she came to the Factory, via Gerard Malanga, in late spring 1966. The daughter of a prominent lawyer who had prosecuted the Boston Strangler case, she had already appeared on the cover of Mademoiselle. She was renamed International Velvet and soon appeared in The Chelsea Girls.

Early life

Susan Bottomly came from an old New England family, attending boarding school where she was thrown out four times. Her father was a district attorney in Boston. In 1966, at the age of 16 she met Andy Warhol at a party in Boston - the same year that her modelling career took off with a front cover for Mademoiselle.

Warhol and the Factory

Bottomly moved to New York in the summer of 1966 and went straight to the Factory. She lived at the Chelsea Hotel where her rent was paid by her family who also sent her an allowance. Gerard Malanga lived with her in the Chelsea for the first couple of months, writing poems about her.With Warhol's relationship with Edie falling apart because of her drug use and alliance with the Dylan crowd, Andy began hanging out at places with Susan. According to Victor Bockris in his Warhol biography, Andy was "playing her [Susan] off against the others while Susan, who had an allowance from her daddy, picked up the tabs at discotheques and introduced him [Andy] to potential backers."During the summer of 1966, Warhol filmed The Chelsea Girls in which Susan appeared in the "Hanoi Hanna (Queen of China)" segment (Room 116), "The Pope Ondine Story" segment (Room 732) and "The John" segment (Room 632). (SG148)Around the same time as The Chelsea Girls was filmed, both Mary and International Velvet appeared in Superboy - a Warhol film that was never screened for the public. The starring role was performed by an unidentified boy surfer. Both Gerard Malanga and Billy Name remember that Superboy was shot slightly before The Chelsea Girls. A photograph taken by Billy Name on the day of the shoot for Superboy was later used to publicize The Chelsea Girls.By Autumn of 1966, Susan had broken up with Gerard and started seeing David Croland who would later become well-known as a fashion illustrator. Susan met David at a party at Il Mio she attended with Andy. The party was arranged to promote big earrings that David had designed for Paraphernalia. When Susan saw David, she asked her Cambridge roommate who was also there, to get him. When David came over to them he picked out two crystal drops with the chains attached from the low chandeliers at Il Mio and made them into earrings which he gave to Susan.In January of 1967, Warhol shot some footage of Susan Bottomly for **** (Four Stars) - a 30 minute colour and sound segment referred to simply as International Velvet which also included Alan Midgette and Dickin. **** (Four Stars), was composed of footage shot between August 1966 and September 1967. It was only screened once at the New Cinema Playhousein New York from 8:30 pm on December 15 to 9:30 pm on December 16, 1967.In addition to her Warhol films, Susan Bottomly was also one of the Factory regulars who appeared in the party scene of Midnight Cowboy which was filmed in late June 1968 while Andy was recuperating in hospital.Susan and David Croland split up in 1968 after Warhol's group introduced Bottomly to French matinee idol Christian Marquand, who had gone on to direct films. He cast Susan in a small part in the film version of Terry Southern's Candy. In the film, she ran down a street shouting "Candy! Your forgot the shoe!" After filming it in the USA, Christian flew Susan to Italy to do something with the Living Theatre and she ended up staying in Italy for months.She arrived back from Rome the day before Andy was shot. She went to David's house to tell him that she was leaving him permanently, and while she was there, Nico came over and told them that Warhol had been shot. Unable to get any information from the hospital and not knowing what to do, Nico suggested that they light candles and sit on the floor and wait. Hours later, after Nico left, they found out from the hospital that Warhol's condition had improved. A few hours after that, Susan left as well, ending her relationship with David.